Hey guys! Horrorella here...
Halloween is getting closer and closer. This week, we're taking a look at 1980's HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE, a film that combines a stalking madman, some horrific murders and the horrors of weddings.
HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE is an interesting entry into the slasher subgenre. Top to bottom, the film shares a lot of DNA with HALLOWEEN - Similar plots, a synthy Carpenter-esque score, an obsessive man hunting the killer and hopefully stopping him before he has a chance to close in on our heroine. But it is so well executed that you almost don't mind the similarities to John Carpenter's seminal classic. The film brings enough unique points to the table to make it memorable and enjoyable.
Like HALLOWEEN, this film opens with a scene that that gets its hooks in you almost immediately. It begins with a young couple making out in some private, deserted location. The girl begins to get nervous when she thinks she hears noises outside the car. The guy tells her it's nothing, but after a few moments, she hears it again, and refuses to be calmed. Boy steps out of the car to investigate (have you figured out where this is going yet?). After a few minutes, girl gets super freaked out that boy hasn't returned. She exits the car, only to find that he has been killed and is now hanging over the car from a nearby tree, his class ring tapping against the window.
Yeah, we've all heard it. And at first, you want to start rolling your eyes. Until the camera pulls back to reveal a crowded movie theater, and this is the slasher film being played on the screen. Now things are getting interesting. As the camera pans back, it eventually comes to settle on two women near the back of the theater. One is staring at the screen in rapt attention. The other looks nervous, as though she would rather be anywhere else. She eventually gets up and heads to the bathroom to take a break from the violence (something none of us understand). As she gathers herself together, she looks around and takes in her surroundings, and begins to suspect that someone is following her. She heads back to the safety of the theater, but her instincts were right. She was indeed being followed. The stranger makes his way into the theater and sits directly behind the her. As the onscreen killer lands one final terrifying blow, the mysterious figure drives a knife through the chair from the row behind her and into her back. Her scream is drowned out by the dozens of screams and reactions around her in response to the events onscreen. The killer (the real one), quietly gets up and exits the theater before anyone even knows that a murder has taken place.
After the initial murder, Detective Gamble (Lewis Arlt) is called to the scene. When he learns that the victim was set to be married soon, he becomes obsessively interested in this case. He has been chasing a deranged killer for years, one whose MO consists of stalking and killing brides-to-be just before their wedding days. In fact, his first victim was none other than Detective Gamble’s fiancé. The detective has been chasing after him ever since, hoping for a chance to finally bring him to justice.
After this lengthy preamble to set the stage, we finally meet Amy (Caitlin O’Heaney), a young woman, just two weeks away from her wedding day. As she goes through the final preparations, she also begins to question her decision to marry her fiance. She has doubts about their relationship and how quickly it is moving, about being married at this point in her life, and the impact that it will have on her future.
As she goes about her days and preparations, she notices that she is being watched from afar by an unfamiliar man. He lurks in the distance, around corners – just out of reach, yet still very present. When she looks away, or calls someone’s attention to him, he disappears, leaving her to wonder if she is simply going crazy. As the days go on and the wedding nears, the mysterious man get closer and closer, and begins leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. Amy tries desparately to understand what is going on, while Detective Gamble races to figure out just where the killer will strike next.
HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE had an interesting genesis and concept development. Director Armand Mastroianni pitched the film to his producers based on the urban legend seen in the first few moments of the film. He was originally planning to build the script out of the story of the couple attacked at lookout point by a mysterious assailant. About half way through the pitch, Mastroianni realized that the producers weren't terribly interested in where the story was headed, so he started improvising, pulling the virtual camera back to create the film-within-a-film opening that HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE now has. Once he had captured their interest, he and screenwriter Scott Parker built the rest of the plot around that opening segment.
It is that opening sequence that helps the film to really make its mark. Shocking, entertaining and unexpected, that scene was payed tribute in during the opening of SCREAM 2, wherein Jada Pinkett-Smith’s character suffers a similar fate as the poor character here, killed at the hands of a madman in a crowded movie theater, with gleeful onlookers thinking it was simply a part of the event. It has had a lasting effect in horror, despite not being remembered as prominently as some of its contemporaries.
Beat for beat, it is very similar to Halloween and the work that Carpenter did in 1978, and though that initially might make it seem like a cheap knock-off, in retrospect, it does a lot to help the film stand out against others in the slasher cycle. As many elements as it borrows from Carpenter, it also finds a way to bring its own originality to the table and create something that is unique. HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE was released in 1980, the same year as FRIDAY THE 13th. As horror films began the race to see who could provide the audience with the most blood-soaked, violent and shocking experience, HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE stands out from the pack with its restraint and its emphasis on psychological terror as opposed to gore. It is more of a cerebral fright than a visceral one, supported by a moody and rather claustrophobic atmosphere built by Mastroianni.
This atmosphere benefits greatly from the inclusion of the hesitation felt by Amy as her wedding day looms before her. She is feeling trepidation about her impending nuptuals at the start of the film, and the feeling grows alongside the unease brought about by the strange man following her. Her fears are reflected and magnified by his constant presence. Over the course of the story, she becomes more and more fearful and paranoid, which greatly feeds into the tension build. The imposing stranger, in turn, helps to illustrate her growing nervousness concerning the path her life is taking, and her inability to stop it or slow it down.
The film is also notable for several of its supporting actors, including a very young Tom Hanks. He enters the story about two thirds of the way through as a love interest for Amy's friend, Nancy (Elizabeth Kemp) and has some of the more engaging, memorable scenes in the film. Even in his first film role, he had a ton of charisma, and it’s now hard to see how he grew up to be the star he is today. And we can all thank Armand Mastroianni. He also had the good sense to cast James Rebhorn and Paul Gleason, two iconic character actors, in supporting roles as well.
HE KNOWS YOU'RE ALONE might not have the franchise power or gore factor of some of the other films of this era, but it is still a worthy and fascinating entry into slasher cinema. Its particular brand of psychological horror and its subtle, calculated trajectory definitely make it stand out against many of the films from this era, and make it a thoughtfully constructed and effective film to this day.
